Our people
Ian Gow
Director
On completing my BEng(Hons) in Building Services Engineering, I joined Hoare Lea in 2003 on a great training scheme – providing the opportunity to work on interesting projects with some of the best engineers in the industry. Having spent nine years working in the Middle East, I have been fortunate enough to work on some amazing projects – each with their own set of unique challenges. I am now based in the UK and responsible for a number of our international projects, as well as the further development of our international offering.
Engineering human experiences.
Watching thousands of people at the opening ceremony for the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain has to be one of my most anxious – and favourite – project moments. It gave me a great sense of fulfilment to see everyone leaving safely, and hearing comments from people in the crowd about how impressive the lighting was and how comfortable they felt!
Biggest engineering challenge.
Providing a comfortable environment for a stadium in the middle of the desert without mechanical cooling was certainly a big challenge. One of our first tasks was to establish an appropriate design criteria; once this was done, we used a number of modelling techniques to ensure the building form, shading structure and façade could be optimised to promote passive solutions.